things are improving

I haven’t posted in awhile because things aren’t too bad! An update is in order, though.

I’ve been on vicodin for my back for about a month. I’ve been able to walk around with less problems, and I can even lift some of the totes and boxes we’ve been packing. I’ve got to be careful, but it’s nice to feel a little more useful around the house. It’s amazing exactly how much pain I’ve been in. I still have weakness and numbness in my legs, which is annoying, but the decreased pain makes it easier to ignore the numbness.

With my back pain lessened, I now know the full extent of my fibro pain. Which is ridiculously annoying. The pain is kind of maddening, really… it’s like needing to stretch but being unable to stretch out the knots no matter how much I bend and contort. It’s also interesting that the narcotics aren’t touching the fibro pain. What an odd pain it is, that it can’t be touched by strong pain killers!

At night I’m taking Flexeril, and that seems to relax my shoulders (the most annoying part of fibro for me, I’ve discovered!) to make it easier to sleep. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but if you haven’t tried it, and it’s hard to sleep because of the fibro pain and tightness, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Some nights it doesn’t help, but more often than not, it does. I can feel the stiffness melting away slightly, and that’s about the point when I fall asleep.

I wake up with tons of back pain and I can hardly stagger down the stairs to the couch, where I pop my first vicodin of the day and check my email and putter around online while it kicks in. It takes about an hour before I can move for real. I sometimes need a second vicodin 8 hours later, depending on what we’re doing. If things are *really* bad, I’ll take a third before bed, but I’ve only had to do that a couple times.

I had a followup with my doctor a couple days ago to talk about the progress. He was glad to hear it! He refilled my scripts and we talked a bit more about how I’m feeling. He wasn’t surprised to hear I’m still tired and still having fibro pain, but was glad I’m walking around more and less glued to the couch.

Even though things are improving, we’ve still decided that going back to work is not a viable option for me. I’ll talk more about disability next time.